Jats

The Jat people (Hindi:, Punjabi:), also spelt Jaat and Jatt, are a traditionally agriculturalcaste in Northern India and Pakistan. Originally pastoralists in the lower Indus River Valley of Sindh and Makran, many Jats migrated north into the Punjab region, and subsequently into Delhi, northeastern Rajasthan, and the western Gangetic Plain, at the turn of second millennium CE. Of Hindu, Muslim and Sikh faiths, they are now found mostly in the Pakistani regions of Sindh, Punjab and Azad Kashmir and the Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan.

By the 20th century, the landowning Jats became an influential group in several parts of North India, including Punjab, Western Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana and Delhi. Over the years, several Jats abandoned agriculture in favour of urban jobs, and used their dominant economic and political status to claim higher social status.